Sports

There was no more fitting way for Saturday’s Judge Taplin Medley Relay to end than the way it did for the L.A County Southern Section lifeguards. The event’s greatest champion, Mel Solberg, passed off the Dory boat to its second greatest champion, Tom Seth, to help the Southern Section lifeguards extend their lead down the stretch, fending off the Central Section and securing their second straight championship.

CANTON, Ohio — The Pro Football Hall of Fame will allow Junior Seau’s daughter to speak in an interview after his bust is unveiled next weekend. “Sydney will be given a chance to share thoughts about her father immediately following the unveiling of his bronzed bust,” the Hall of Fame said Saturday night in a statement.

SAN BERNARDINO >> The Angels might have just been swept by the Houston Astros to drop into second place in the American League West, but perhaps help is on the way after Jered Weaver completed a rehabilitation appearance with the 66ers on Thursday.

BAKERSFIELD >> Cody Kessler didn’t grow up near marinas or silicon chips, or electric boats or ocean cliffs. Instead, he grew up in California. Right in the middle of it. He grew up with oil wells and almond trees, in the home of Kevin Harvick and Rick Mears, in the city where

Ontario >> Sweetwater Valley’s baseball team took Game 1 of the Southern California Little League Finals Series, defeating Manhattan Beach 9-6 at Homer F. Briggs Park on Saturday. Nate Nankil had a two-run homer in the first inning for Sweetwater Valley, scoring Levi Mendez, who had singled.

Clayton Kershaw had his Saturday start pushed back twice because of inflammation in his right hip. One would have never known he was in any recent pain because he certainly put a hurtin’ on the Angels in Game 2 of the Freeway Series.

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. >> Alan Gordon scored in the 69th minute, Robbie Keane added a goal in stoppage time and the Galaxy ended a 15-match winless streak on the road with a 3-1 victory over the Colorado Rapids on Saturday night.

The 100 meters in front of Wisconsin’s Olivia Quigley looked so long, the finish line so far. The sun was beating down on USC’s Loker Stadium on Thursday and the 24-year-old Quigley almost didn’t want to run.

Northridge’s Luke Rose swam in the 4x50-meter freestyle relay in the Special Olympics World Games on Saturday at USC’s Uytengsu Aquatics Center, helping Team USA to a bronze medal. The 20-year-old won the silver medal in the 50 backstroke Wednesday and took fourth place in the 50 freestyle Thursday.

JOHANNESBURG >> The NBA put on a show in its first exhibition game in Africa on Saturday — starting with a dunk straight from the tip-off by Luc Mbah a Moute. That had the crowd roaring early at Ellis Park Arena in downtown Johannesburg.

Angels southpaw C.J. Wilson has been placed on the 15-day disabled list and could be out for the season with bone spurs in his left elbow. Wilson, who had surgery to remove bone spurs in August 2008 and October 2012, said he expects to have the same surgery unless a second opinion tells him he won’t need it.

Troy Merritt couldn’t miss Saturday at the Quicken Loans National in Gainesville, Va. Tiger Woods couldn’t make anything. Merritt shot a tournament-record 10-under 61 to top the leaderboard even before the leading contenders teed off.

Go ahead, set yourself a watchman. Harper Lee’s back-to-the-future return to the book world’s best-seller list arrives with a reference to an Old Testament passage from Isaiah, foretelling the fall of Babylon.

They’ve sprinted on tracks, churned through water and powered through pain in their quest for gold. But Sunday the 6,500 athletes who competed in the Special Olympics World Games will take a more leisurely victory lap when the 165 nations that arrived in Southern California more than a week ago participate in the closing ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Ronda Rousey defended her bantamweight title by knocking out Bethe Correia only 34 seconds into the first round at UFC 190 on Saturday night. Rousey charged at Correia at the start and finished the fight by throwing a rapid sequence of punches at the Brazilian’s head, landing a combination of right and left strikes that sent her opponent face-first into the ground and disappointed the home crowd that packed the HSBC Arena.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Throughout more than 120 years of Olympic history, no city has hosted both the winter and summer games. Now, Beijing will be the first do it — and in the span of just 14 years.

Talk about Face Time. Major League Soccer has announced a new promotion that will put the faces of select fans in the design within the numbers on player jerseys.Each club invited certain season ticket holders to a special website where they selected a number between zero and nine, as well as a location within that number, and uploaded a photo.

Arizona State head coach Todd Graham started off Pac-12 media days with his Texas drawl and his black cowboys boots. He showed off his custom-made black alligator boots emblazoned with the ASU pitchfork on the front and the team’s mascot Sparky on the back.

WHITTIER >> The opening ceremony for the PONY-13 International World Series at York Field kicked off four days of baseball games on Friday, with teams from the United States and around the world competing for the title.

A funny thing happened on the way to the first regular-season game between the Dodgers and Angels in 2015: They made a trade. Howie Kendrick kicked off the scoring Friday with a solo home run off Angels pitcher Hector Santiago in the Dodgers’ 5-3 win.

An area ruffian had a lot to do with why Abraham Lopez began to box. “My father was a fighter, but the reason I really started was because of my older brother,” Lopez said. “We had a neighborhood bully and he used to try to pick on my brother and my dad’s like, ‘Hey, fight back, I’m going to teach you how to box.

The Serra boys basketball team had a disappointing 2014-15 season, finishing 11-15 overall, including 2-6 in the loaded Del Rey League, and missed out on the playoffs. It was a rare season for Serra, a perennial league and CIF Southern Section title contender.

Even as the Dodgers returned to the diamond Friday night to play the Angels, it seemed early to be taking stock of their trade deadline haul. Mat Latos still hadn’t reported to his new team two days ahead of his scheduled debut.

Asked about Oregon’s starting quarterback, coach Mark Helfrich would not name Vernon Adams Jr. on Friday. That would have required uttering his name. “I’m only going to talk about those who are with us,” Helfrich said at Part 2 of Pac-12 Media Days.

If we’re going for the big dig here, what’s at the existential core of Angelinos suddenly compelled to get all giddy up onto the five-ringed bandwagon, waving furiously to get the USOC’s attention as it tries to regift the 2024 Summer Olympics bid? By what remote chance does any of this have to do with a new-found opportunity to stick your sun-tanned tongues out at pasty Bostonians who apparently have again shown their true colors – despite

It was a loaded question, and Angels manager Mike Scioscia fielded it with diplomatic ease. “I’m very comfortable in the fact that I know (general manager) Bill Stoneman and (assistant GM) Matt Klentak and (team president) John Carpino and (owner) Arte Moreno turned over every stone to make us as good as we can be and I think we’re a good team,” Scioscia said Friday, when asked if he was hopeful his team would have done more at the trading deadline.

SAN BERNARDINO >> All week long the question has been “How Is Makayla feeling?” The top pitcher at the Little League Softball West Region tournament, stricken by what turned out to be a kidney infection, Makayla Miller pitched every inning for South Snohomish this week.

The NCAA was given a respite Friday when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court delayed the implementation of possible payments to athletes for the use of their names, images and likenesses. The stay in the Ed O’Bannon case allows schools to withhold payments of roughly $5,000 in deferred money to football and basketball players, which were expected to begin Saturday as part of the landmark ruling handed down by U.

Since he was nine years old, Dakota Shaffer and his mother Amy had a routine for every gymnastics meet. Dakota showed up for meets with a purple Mohawk haircut initially so Amy could easily locate him.

The 53rd Charlie Saikley six-person volleyball tournament was as good as ever on Friday’s final day as three champions were crowned in the men’s and women’s Open Division as well as the men’s Masters Division (over 40).

Special Olympics Global Messenger Allen “Big Al” Wales had already been honored by hoisting the Olympic flame through Northridge. Then last week he received a commendation from the White House — for catching first lady Michelle Obama during what could have been a nasty tumble in Los Angeles.

Former USC tight end Bryce Dixon, who is no longer enrolled in school following a student-conduct issue, is appealing to return to the university. Dixon, projected to start at tight end this season, was removed from USC following an incident involving a female student last fall.

RIO DE JANEIRO — The waters where Olympians will compete in swimming and boating events next summer in South America’s first games are rife with human sewage and present a serious health risk for athletes, as well as for visitors to the iconic beaches of Rio de Janeiro.

The Redondo baseball team became accustomed to winning championships during the course of the 2015 season, so why should the summer be any different? Redondo won its own tournament, a share of the Bay League title and its first-ever CIF Southern Section Division 3 championship in the spring.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Tom Brady received a big cheer from Patriots fans when he came out on the practice field Thursday for New England’s first practice of training camp. The quarterback and team owner Robert Kraft both got a warm reception from the crowded bleachers full of fans — many wearing jerseys with Brady’s No.

NEW YORK — Tom Brady’s lawsuit against the NFL in which he wants his four-game suspension overturned will be heard in New York instead of Minnesota. Brady and the players’ union filed their suit Wednesday in Minnesota.

OCEANPORT, N.J. — Triple Crown winner American Pharoah took an easy tour of the track at Monmouth Park on Thursday morning, another step toward the $1.75 million Haskell Invitational. The colt was taken for a slow, one-mile jog on his first trip over the surface for Sunday’s race.

The International Surf Festival is in full swing. The main event of the festival is the 53rd Annual Charlie Saikley 6-Person Tournament which brings volleyball players and teams from all over the country and the world to play on the sand courts near the Manhattan Beach Pier for the two-day event.